cliff if congress and the white house can't agree on a resolution. president obama and house speaker boehner took the fight to the podiums. >> it's not acceptable to me and i don't think it's acceptable to you for just a handful of republicans in congress to hold middle-class tax cuts hostage simply because they don't want tax rates on upper income folks to go up. that -- that doesn't make sense. >> it's not a serious proposal. and so, right now, we're almost nowhere. >> joining me now is nancy cook, budget and tax correspondent for national journal. welcome back, nice to see you. >> you, too. >> let's take a look at white house propose. $1.6 trillion in tax increases, $400 billion in savings. is that how this $1.6 trillion is going to be reached? >> the way the $1.6 trillion will be reached is primarily through the expiration of the bush-era tax cuts for the top 2% of taxpayers. then there would be some other increases in taxes on investment income, again for people above people making more than $250,000, and also some capping of deductions. so ther